In 1995 the Serbian film „Подземље“ (Underground) was released & was a modest, if slightly controversial success.
I liked the film as a comedy about people trapped underground in an absurdist reality appealed to me.
& then recently I realised the film was really about..Britain.
I liked the film as a comedy about people trapped underground in an absurdist reality appealed to me.
& then recently I realised the film was really about..Britain.
Underground is loveable crudity, slapstick & serious ideas about truth. The main character, an arms dealer, hits on the idea to convince people sheltering in a basement during WW II making weapons to fight the Germans…to believe the war is still going on…long after its ended.
3/
As Marko oversees the weapons manufacturing he is able to control time by adding hours to a day so the people in the cellar think that only 15 years passed since WW II instead of 20. They're continuously making weapons, and with this eternal labour supply he becomes rich.
As Marko oversees the weapons manufacturing he is able to control time by adding hours to a day so the people in the cellar think that only 15 years passed since WW II instead of 20. They're continuously making weapons, and with this eternal labour supply he becomes rich.
4/
When the inevitable happens and some of those underground emerge, they cannot perceive the reality and confuse the making of a film about the war with continuation of the war. Everything is perceived through the lens of a carefully cultivated mythical reality.
When the inevitable happens and some of those underground emerge, they cannot perceive the reality and confuse the making of a film about the war with continuation of the war. Everything is perceived through the lens of a carefully cultivated mythical reality.
5/
Ultimately the film is about how a country destroyed itself from inside believing myths which become ever madder & yet impossible to destroy.
But that once theses myths go....then everything else goes too.
Ultimately the film is about how a country destroyed itself from inside believing myths which become ever madder & yet impossible to destroy.
But that once theses myths go....then everything else goes too.
6/
The film contains the sadder truth that rulers realise the only thing that can pull group together is a common enemy – even if it doesn’t exist.
The end of a film ends in futuristic happy ending future..or is it the past?
These days in Britain I think a lot about this film.
The film contains the sadder truth that rulers realise the only thing that can pull group together is a common enemy – even if it doesn’t exist.
The end of a film ends in futuristic happy ending future..or is it the past?
These days in Britain I think a lot about this film.
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